Psalm 119; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 18:1-8; October 19, 2025; Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
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“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant; I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” – from Jeremiah 31:31-34
That’s got to be one of the most beautiful passages in scripture. “I will write it on their hearts… from the least to the greatest… and remember their sin no more.”
It’s the gospel, after all, isn’t it? The good news.
Last week we talked about this good news through the joy of inclusion and God’s symbol of the covenant. The rainbow. Draped over our shoulders, burning with light from Christ’s table. With the hope and the belief that God has so loved all of God’s children, those on the inside and those on the outside, that we all have been adopted into God’s large and beautiful chosen family.
And today we hear again about this covenant, this new covenant from the prophet Jeremiah, but this time, we also get some extra meat on dem bones about just what this covenant entails.
For in addition to God’s love, this new covenant also guarantees divine forgiveness.
Forgiveness, that beautiful F word at the heart of the gospel.
Forgiveness, perhaps the greatest extension of love that there is.
Our Call to Worship began today with words from Psalm 119. “Here I am, Lord! How I love your law/your ways! How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
And that’s saying something, especially to me, as I loveeeeeeee honey. Put a little bit in your tea, ooh boy! Have you ever added it to your oatmeal? No? I have and let me tell you, it’s great! Oh yes, I love honey. But I also love God’s promises. God’s covenant. God’s commandment through Christ to love, and to love by forgiving.
Did you know that Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the whole Bible, containing 176 verses? A long acrostic poem emphasizing the importance of God’s contract with us. That even as we try to keep God’s law and ways, and fail spectacularly, God has yet promised to love us anyway. No matter what. With abounding grace and unfailing forgiveness.
Amen!
The last two verses of the Psalm go like this:
“Let me live that I may praise you, and let your ordinances help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I won’t forget your commandments.” — Psalm 119:175-176
And I just love that, don’t you? Those words. This notion that even those who try to keep the covenant, are regular folk just like you and me, who will fall astray like lost sheep… and yet… found by Christ, our Good Shepherd, from the least to the greatest, for all will be forgiven!
My friends, God’s forgiveness has been tattooed on our souls. It’s been written on our hearts. And what is our heart, but a living, beating, muscle. And what is the Word of God, but a beating, living, promise that says “I forgive, I forgive, 77 x7 times, I forgive.”
God is the partner in marriage that we just can’t be.
I don’t know about you all in your marriages, in your relationships, but me and Anya aren’t perfect. We sometimes aren’t quick enough to forgive, and too fast to recall each other’s sins. Oh, that list of wrongs committed in the last week or so just comes out when arguing, doesn’t it? And at the most vulnerable of times. Who said what. Who did or didn’t do what. We struggle with this. Because, like you, we aren’t perfect.
But you know who doesn’t struggle and who is perfect? God. Jesus. That guy who sees and hears us screw up each and every day and yet never grows tired of pardoning us.
Listen to this:
Luke 18:1-8 — The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge
“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’ For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Will he find faith? Will we remember to not lose heart?
Friends will we today keep this faith, and trust in these promises, in this new covenant?
That our god, unlike this judge, won’t ever be bothered by us, but will always be ready to grant us release. Acquittal. A commutation for all of our shortcomings.
Can we believe this today? Will we?
For unlike every other person in our life who we give every reason to grow tired of us, to not forgive us, to recall our failings and our sins, we are told today that God has done and will do the complete opposite.
And to that I say:
Thanks be to God!
And praise be to Christ!
Amen!
